Jakarta, May 28, 2018. Today, Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI) held a peaceful action urging the minister Sofyan Djalil to obey the Supreme Court’s decision. In this action, FWI submitted the support of 53 thousand netizen signatures raised through Change.org petition to open the Information of Right to Cultivate for palm oil plantations to the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency.
It was the second time for FWI to take to the street with the same demands. Last year, the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency promised to obey the Supreme Court’s decision to open the Right to Cultivate documents and completed the technical instructions related to the retrieval mechanism of Right to Cultivate documents. However, until this day, one year after the Supreme Court’s decision with permanent legal force, the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency had not shown the good intention to open the Right to Cultivate documents and discussed the retrieval mechanism of Right to Cultivate documents.
“This action is the public dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency closure. In the future, we will invite more people to demands the transparency of land and forest management,” Said Anggi Putra Yoga as the coordinator of the action.
The demands to open the Right to Cultivate information also came from Greenpeace Indonesia. Greenpeace Indonesia forest campaigner, Asep Komarudin, said, “we have to live with the information dispute of Right to Cultivate in the Central Information Commission. After the Right to Cultivate document application by Greenpeace Indonesia was not given by the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency. This dispute should not have occurred considering the Supreme Court’s decision, which stated that the Right to Cultivate documents are open to the public. It was a real fact that the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency did not want to be open.”
Linda Rosalina, FWI Campaigner, regretted the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency attitude. “This clearly shows the development of the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency on the order of the Public Information Disclosure Act.”
“In fact, the information that is often covered up by the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning/National Land Agency is information related to policy issues that have made a controversy. As it is known, giving the concession of Right to Cultivate to the corporation, then the problems that occur are often the removing forest, creating tenurial conflict, causing forest and land fires, and inequality of land tenure.” Said Linda.
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Editor’s Note:
- The right to cultivate is the right to cultivate land that is directly controlled by the State, within the period as stated in Article 29, for agricultural, fishery or livestock companies (Article 28 paragraph (1) of Law No.5 of 1960 concerning Basic Basic Agrarian Regulations).
- Decision of the Central Information Commission No 057 / XII / KIP-PS-M-A / 2015 Between Forest Watch Indonesia and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / National Land Agency of the Republic of IndonesiaI: https://fwi.or.id/publikasi/putusan-sengketa-informasi-antara-fwi-dg-kementerian-atruangbpn/
- Decision of the State Administrative Court No. 2 / G / KI / 2016 / PTUN-JKT between Forest Watch Indonesia and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / the Indonesian National Land Agency of the Republic of Indonesia: https://fwi.or.id/publikasi/putusan-ptun-atas-sengketa-informasi-antara-fwi-dg-kementerian-atruangbpn/
- Supreme Court Decision No 121 K / TUN / 2017 Between Forest Watch Indonesia and the Ministry of Agrarian Affairs and Spatial Planning / National Land Agency of the Republic of Indonesia: https://fwi.or.id/publikasi/putusan-mahkamah-agung-republik-indonesia/
- Until now the petition is still running, changes in numbers can be fast. To find out the latest number of petition signatories, click on the page: change.org/bukainformasiHGU
- change.org/bukainformasiHGU
Contact for interview:
Linda Rosalina, FWI Campaigner
linda@fwi.or.id/ 085710886024
Anggi Putra Prayoga, Action Coordinator
anggiputraprayoga@fwi.or.id/ 082298317272
Asep Komarudin, Forest Campaigner of Greenpeace Indonesia
Asep.komarudin@greenpeace.org / 081310728770